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Those immigrants who do not find room with relatives
must find somewhere to live. Most of them are unskilled and
likely to remain for several years in the lower income group, and they can not afford private housing. This has led to greatly increased squatting (that is, the illegal occuption of land by substandard and unserviced building) with the associated problems of the activities of gangsters controlling and selling sites for these flimsy huts, and the danger to occupants in bad
weather and from fire. The number of such illegal structures
on Crown land demolished in the 18 months from 1 January 1979 was
80 percent higher than in the preceeding 18 months. It should be
noted that on demolition of such structures the Government
accepts the responsibility of housing the occupants in some form of temporary housing.
Medical and Health Services
There has been increasing development in recent years to improve significantly Hong Kong's medical and health services. Two targets set, for example, were 5.7 hospital beds per 1,000 population and 7 clinic consulting rooms per 100,000 population; given a natural increase in population, this target would have been reached in 1989. However, with the increased rate of immigration, a reduction in existing ratios was already being experienced by 1979. The following tables, which do not take into account future immigration, show that the ratios likely to be achieved in 1989 will be well below the original
targets.
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